Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The music game genre has been around for almost 30 years, and in this episode of retro gaming podcastPassion for Pixels, we trace the genre from it's birth until today, along with our special guest Tyma.

It all started with the NES title Dance Aeorobics and the obscure Famicom Disk System release Otocky, which we take some time to talk about. Following this was a hiatus of a few years before Parappa The Rapper became a huge success when it was released in 1997, and we talk about our memories of playing the game and the waves it made in the videogame press at the time. As Tyma puts it: "Parappa is the music game that every music game strives to be."

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Have you ever bought a game because the box art looks awesome? Hopefully not, but if you only use box art as your buying criteria you've probably played some pretty awful games. On this episode of retro gaming podcastPassion for Pixels, Stian and Danny try to dissect the phenomenon of bad games that sell well. Also, we try to see why some amazing games never made bank.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Yesterday at GDC in San Francisco,
Harmonix officially announced Rock Band 4 is in development for next-gen
consoles. Although Rock Band 3 hit shelves nearly five years ago, an epic
string of DLC releases and spin-off titles ensured would be rock stars weren’t
letting their plastic instruments gather dust. Sorting the span of reactions with some claiming the franchise should stay dead and others hailing it
as the second coming isn't easy but I think, on balance, interest is strong. Still, the
music rhythm genre isn’t the cash cow it once was and I think Harmonix should
be wary of a few things if they want to rebuild their empire.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

On this special episode of retro gaming podcastPassion for Pixels, Danny and Stian welcome their first guest to the podcast! Tyma, a Neo Geo guru, covers everything from why the system has enjoyed such longevity to how to get into collecting and playing. Did you know that, despite its popularity, Metal Slug is actually one of the rarest titles to find? Also, Tyma counts down his top ten non-fighting Neo Geo games mixing some lesser known titles with outright classics.